Austenesque
by NonsensicalLyrics
Summary: For Zutara Week 2013, originally posted on tumblr. Serial drabbles vaguely modeled after a Jane Austen style romance where Ember Island is basically Bath.


a/n Drabbles for Zutara Week 2013, originally posted on tumbr and now uploaded here in one shot. I ended up not doing as much editing before putting them up here as I expected I would need to, I'm not sure if that's more because they seem better on reread than I thought they'd been when I first wrote them or if it's because I'm lazy? Either way, please enjoy these seven serial drabbles written after the fashion of a Jane Austen-type romance.

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_**Calor**_

The peak of summer always brought out the worst in people. As temperatures ran so did tempers, and the heat made men and women alike loathe of the closeness and cooperation the coldest weather required. Making Ember Island, overrun as it was with the most fashionable and social conscious of the grumpy, sweaty masses, the last place Katara particularly wanted to be.

But here she was, dutifully accompanying her family. Sokka was fond of the crowds and the shopping, and her father of the dear memories he had of time he spent with his late wife the summer after their wedding. And as for her father's ward – well, Aang was happy anywhere.

And so long as her family was happy, she thought to herself as she glided smilingly next to her brother down the main street, so was she.

Or at least she tried very hard to appear so.

"When did Suki say she would be meeting us?" she asked.

Sokka peered up at the sky, the sun just visible through the accumulating clouds that promised a coming afternoon shower.

"Her note said at midday, if I'm remembering right." As he lowered his eyes back down from the sky they caught on something several yards ahead of them and his entire face lit up. As he tried to sprint towards who it was he saw Katara quickly reached out and yanked her brother back by his arm to prevent him from causing a scene and possibly several injuries.

Only momentarily thrown off by his sisters actions, Sokka quickly recovered and began waving his free arm wildly. "Suki!" he cried, oblivious to the way Katara cringed in embarrassment. "Suki, we're over here!"

"I think she sees us, Sokka."

Soon an auburn haired girl wearing a grin to match his was flinging herself into Sokka's arms, throwing him several feet back and out of Katara's grasp.

"I missed you, too," Suki said with a laugh, obviously not the slightest bit concerned about the scene they were causing.

Katara, meanwhile, took in the many looks they were receiving from the crowds surrounding them. She placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Come on, we found Suki, let's get going."

The couple separated and allowed and allowed her to lead them down the street.

"It's nice to see you, too, Katara," the other girl said with a smirk.

Katara stopped and spun around. "Oh, Suki – you know I'm happy to see you."

Suki gave her a knowing look. "Who cares what they think?" she said lightly. "They're so stuffy around here."

Katara bit back a sigh. It was easy for Suki to shrug off the judgments of others; she was financially independent and had no family to think of. She only had her school for girls that she had inherited proprietorship over when her grandmother died, and she took care to instill her pupils with the same fierceness and independence. Katara, for her part, had always had Sokka and her father and Aang to worry over.

Well, she wouldn't have Sokka for long, she recalled with a strange pang in her heart, drifting a little behind as he and his intended resumed chatting about all that had occurred since they'd last seen one another. In just a matter of weeks he would marry Suki and he'd be hers to deal with. Maybe if their mother was still alive this uncomfortable stew of relief and pride and loss would be hers to feel and Katara would be left with only joy for her friend and brother.

"Katara, what are you doing back there?" Suki turned around and pulled her future sister in law forward. "Walk next to me so we can catch up."

Sokka, now forced to take up the rear position, pouted.

"But what about catching up with me?" he whined.

"I saw you just a week ago when you visited the island, but your sister and I haven't seen each other in almost two months."

"He's never been very good at sharing," Katara confided mischievously.

Suki laughed. "Well, he's going to have to learn quickly once we're married. Good thing I'm an excellent teacher."

"Speaking of, how is everything at Kyoshi? Do you miss your..." But Katara trailed off when she saw an angry looking man, the brim of his hat pulled low over his glowering brows, stomp into a shop a little ways ahead of them, the owners of which she happened to know.

Katara stopped walking, causing Sokka to almost run into them.

"Actually, would you mind if we ducked in hear real quick?" she said, indicating the shop. "I wanted to get some, um... ribbons."

"Ribbons?" Suki repeated, eyebrow quirked.

Sokka made a face. "Ribbons? Bleck. I'll wait outside for you two, if you don't mind."

"It'll just take a minute," Katara assured as she went towards the door, not bothering to see if Suki would follow.

Sure enough, when she opened the door she could hear a raised voice, and the moment the little bell above the door rang the voice fell to a furiously hushed whisper.

He had had the man minding the shop, a boy really not any older than she, cornered near the back of the store. Haru looked terrified, and confused, in the face of the stranger's rage.

Knowing that certainly he could never have done anything to be deserving of such a temper, Katara quickly pointed to the first ribbon she saw and said loudly, "Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me what the price for this is?"

Both turned to look at her, Haru mid-cower, the other man mid-glare. She was a little shocked to note the scar covering a good quarter his face, clearly visible without a hat over it, making him even more intimidating than he would have been otherwise.

"Um, it's the same price as the others," Haru stammered, pointing to a sign directly in front of her that read 'Three Bronze Coins A Piece'. He seemed grateful for the interruption none the less.

"Of course, how silly of me," she laughed just as she heard the bell on the door ring as Suki entered.

"They're all so lovely," Katara continued. "I can't quite make up my mind which I want – do you think you could help? Unless of course you're still helping this gentleman," she added as if she'd just then noticed the rather unmissable man who had by now crossed his arms in a manner that would seem sulky on a less imposing figure. Their eyes met – he had quite lovely eyes, almost yellow – and she thought she saw what might have been embarrassment in his.

With what seemed to be some effort he tore his gaze from her to fix the shop boy with one last glare.

"No, I believe we're done here." And with that he shoved his hat back on his head and stalked out of the store without even bothering to nod to Suki, who was standing by the door with an expression on her face that was rather more amused than bemused.

A few minutes later the two women also exited, Katara with several more ribbons and several fewer coins for her trouble.

"What did you do to peeve off his royal angry britches?" Sokka asked as he pushed off against the wall he had been leaning rather undignifiedly against.

Katara wrinkled her nose. "Who?"

"I think he means the man you rescued that poor shop keeper from," Suki said helpfully as they started walking again.

"Oh, him." She tried to sound dismissive. "He was already angry when I got to him. You should have seen the look on Haru's face – whoever that man is, I hope he feels ashamed for the way he acted today."

Sokka looked at her disbelievingly. "You mean you don't know who he is?"

"No, I don't. Should I?"

"He's the nephew of Fire Lord!"

Katara stiffened, taken aback despite herself by the knowledge of she'd just been in the presence of. She quickly wracked her brain - she wasn't sure she even knew the Fire Lord _had _a nephew before just then. At last she just shook her head dismissively.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the time or the patience to take notice of ever last member of the aristocracy."

Suki hummed thoughtfully.

"Well," she said, taking a ribbon from her companion and examining it absently, a mischievous grin playing at the corner of her lips "He's certainly taken notice of you, now."

Katara blushed.

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**_Euphoria_**

Katara never danced. Not as a rule – it just wasn't something she had much opportunity for. Her father's modest estate was in a rather remote, and cold, region of the world, and when they did stay in town she would turn down most invitations in favor of staying at home with Aang, who up until recently was too young to attend dances.

But now that she was dancing, she was very much enjoying herself. Perhaps a little too much. She was sure to be embarrassed the next day over her behavior she knew, even as she tossed her hair and laughed coquettishly at a joke her current dance partner made as they completed a turn, but she couldn't help herself. The music, the crowd, the attentions of so many young men – young men who were really properly men and not nearly-men like Aang, as dear as he was to her.

It was all a little heady for chronically responsible and self-sacrificing Katara. If it weren't for her partner's hand on her own weighing her down she was certain she would float straight to the ceiling.

With a flourish of strings the current dance ended, and after bowing to her partner and giving a teasing "maybe" to his request for another dance later, Katara made her way over to where she had left her brother and his fiance. They had been taking a breather from all the dancing they'd been doing themselves. When she saw that they were no longer there, she craned her head to try to spot them, or else her father or his ward.

At last she saw Aang's unmissable bald head across the room, followed by his equally unmissable smile when he spotted her as well. She made a sign for him to stay where he was and that she would come to him before diligently beginning to weave her way through the mass of mingling revelers. But as she came close to her destination she was nearly knocked over by a very solid mass as it turned unexpectedly around a corner.

"I apologize, madam, I wasn't watching where I was going," she heard in a voice that was familiar despite it's sheepish tone as she steadied herself with one hand against the wall.

"No, you weren't," she was about to say, but she only got through 'no' before she saw who it was.

"Prince Zuko!" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her tone, having not expected that she would ever run into him again.

He visibly flushed. "It's, captain, if you please."

Katara blinked and processed his demeanor, before coming back to herself. "Of course. You're in the navy, aren't you," she said, remembering vaguely some of the gossip she heard from Sokka following their last run in. "And recently promoted, I hear."

As he stood there, awkwardly nodding, a mischievous smile played over her face that would have done Suki proud, and, still teeming from the rush of dance and attention, she pressed on.

"You'll have to forgive me for not recognizing you the other day," she said. "You can't imagine how embarrassed I was when I found out that I had interrupted the great Prince- excuse me, _Captain _Zuko in the midst of what was from all appearance an extremely important conversation."

To her delight he went even redder.

"I needed to be on my way, at any rate," he said with a cough into his hand.

"But it had to have been important, for a great man like you to be bothering a poor little shop boy like that." Katara's smile never faltered.

"It was a misunderstanding, actually."

"I'm sure it was."

"It was." And his yellow eyes fixed on her – no, not yellow, _gold,_ and as rich and sparkling as the purest gold imaginable – as if willing her to believe him.

She tossed her hair again in a particularly shameless manner, trying to shake off the shiver threatening to run through her. "Of course. It was so wonderful to see you again, Captain."

He took her offered hand in his, warm and soft despite the callouses, and the shiver she was trying to stave off rushed up her arm and down her spine and to her toes and the ends of her hair. His voice was low when he spoke.

"Hopefully next time it will be under better circumstances." He held her hand just a moment longer than necessary before letting go.

They then went their separate ways, and Katara finally reached her air bending darling, her head still spinning and her feet just barely on the ground, but no longer because of the dancing.

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_**Voices**_

"_Do you mean the prince said that?"_

"_Yes, Captain Zuko, he did, really."_

Katara, sitting alone with her tea in a secluded corner of a fashionable tea room, felt her ears perk up despite herself. The speakers probably didn't realize that someone was sitting on the other side of the screen they had just approached and sat by, but they weren't exactly keeping their voices down. If they really cared about being overheard certainly they would try a little harder to keep quiet, Katara reasoned. And what was she supposed to do? Stop her ears and hum? With no one to distract her – her father and Aang still not having returned from wherever it was they'd gone off too – she had no choice but to listen.

"_Sharp tongued, hmm. That's quite a compliment."_

"_He also said she had a lovely figure and charming blue eyes."_

Now her ears began to burn. It wasn't necessarily her, though, she told herself as her heartbeat sped to a prance. She was far from the only woman in the world with blue eyes.

"_A lovely figure? Well, now."_

Well now indeed.

"_So was anyone able to tell him who his mystery lady was?"_

"_Oh, yes, though he had to ask around quite a bit. He seemed quite desperate to find out. It was rather improprietous, how obvious he was being and all. You'd think a prince would know to be a little more discreet, even if he is only fourth in line."_

"_Stop teasing and just tell me who she is."_

Katara tried to sip at her tea, only to find that she had unintentionally used her bending to turn it to ice. She pushed it away and laced her fingers primly in her lap.

"_Your are so impatient. She's no one really – her father apparently owns some barren plot of land in the far south. Although he is the guardian of the young Air Nomad heir, ever since he was so tragically orphaned those years ago, do you remember? It was in all the papers. Anyway, she and her brother were raised alongside him."_

Suddenly very, very hot. Katara grabbed at her ice cold tea and downed it in one gulp.

"_And?"_

"_That's all there is really. Like I say, she's no one."_

"_Maybe she was no one, but she's certainly someone now, with a prince's sights on her."_

She could hardly find it in herself to feel affronted at the way they spoke of her – no one, she wasn't no one, she was a bright young woman with a wonderful family and plenty of prospects prince or no prince, thank you very much. She quickly fished out a few coins from her purse as she heard the low tones of her father's voice speaking to the host, probably inquiring as to where she was seated.

"_So, does she have a name?"_

Her father along with Aang approached her table just as she stood up.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry we took so long..."

"Oh, it's okay," she spoke a little too loudly. "But we should really be going."

Aang's face crumpled.

"But I wanted to try their egg custard, I heard it was good."

Katara ushered them towards the door without pause. "It's nothing to write home about – I'll make you some myself when we get back."

"What's gotten into you, Katara?" her father asked.

She glanced over her shoulder as she escaped outside to see two women staring at her as if she were some rare bird, one whispering behind her hand to the other.

"Nothing, I just, um, want to talk to Suki about something. Let's get going"

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_**Gravity**_

Katara waved along with her father and Aang as the newlywed couple took off in the airship Sokka had customized himself. She felt no melancholy over the departure of her brother and his bride as she had feared, but only happiness.

Secretly, she had to acknowledge that a part of this was due to their simply being no room in her mind for any sad feelings, overtaken as she had been ever since the other day by thoughts of the captain-prince and how he had asked after her – _her_, after she had been so disagreeable towards him – in such an obvious manner. How he had commented on her eyes and figure and _'sharp tongue'._ She could almost be angry with him for exposing her to gossip, but then she would remember his eyes and how they lingered on hers, and how warm his hand had felt. And she would wonder why it was he wanted so badly to know who she was, what it was he wanted from her.

"_I knew he was taken with you," _Suki had teased the other week as they prepared for bed. She was certain she'd miss the other girl's teasing advice and and encouragement in the weeks to come if she was at all right about the prince's feelings.

Katara laughed as Aang whirled into the air to give one last two armed wave before Sokka and Suki were too far away to see. For the present, everything was wonderful.

Hakoda sighed a little to himself, his smile a little more subdued than the younger two's, but no less genuine. "They'll be very happy together," he said, putting an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Just like your mother and I were."

Katara leaned into him. "I think so, too."

He chuckled, and she could feel it vibrating through his chest. "Before you know it it'll be your turn."

She froze. Did he – did he know?

Then her eyes fell on Aang as he landed lightly on the ground and her father reached out to rub his bald head affectionately.

.

"_Hakoda," an 8-year-old Aang cried joyfully as his guardian appeared outside. "Guess what? I asked Katara and she said she'd marry me! If it's okay with you, of course"_

Everything came crashing down as she remembered – how could she have forgotten, even for just a little bit?

"_Nothing could make me happier."_

_._

She was supposed to marry Aang. Since they were children, she had always been expected to marry Aang.

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_**Bound**_

A couple of weeks went past with Katara diligently avoiding places where she might run into the prince. And since she really didn't know much about his habits, and since she no longer had Sokka the gossip hound to fill her in on the movements of everyone who was anyone on Ember Island whether she wanted to hear about it or not, this made most places off limits. Which, meant a lot of sitting around at home playing cards with Aang. Today however Aang was visiting with one or more of his many friends, she could never keep track of them all, and her father was out on some business, so aside from the maid – who had far too much to do today and no she did not need Katara's help, really, thank you for offering, now please, get out from underfoot – she was the only one at home.

What was she doing? This was so silly – he had probably forgotten all about her, by now, if he'd ever really thought that much about her in the first place, which was doubtful, no matter how those two women at the tea shop had made it sound or what Suki said. She didn't even know if he was still on the island.

This wasn't like her, sitting around and avoiding things. She was Katara, daughter of Kya, and she did not hide.

On top of that, she was on her third rereading of the collected poetry of Gatzu the Elder and was all out of sewing projects.

So, with her head held high and in her second best errand-running dress, she ventured out into the balmy streets, ignoring the ominously darkening clouds over head.

She would just run a few errands. Post a letter to her brother and Suki, put in an order for a few scrolls, maybe have a cup of tea. And she most certainly did not secretly hope to run into the prince. He was the furthest thing from her mind, she couldn't even remember the last time she thought about the him, never mind that it had been just that morning.

The day went smoothly with no strange run ins, of the princely persuasion or otherwise, not even at the tea shop, which was very fashionable and certainly where a prince would go to get his tea if he were to go anywhere. Which was good, just as she wanted it, really.

Katara glanced up at the sky that she had neglected to take note of when she first set off and which had become increasingly heavy and gray since.

It didn't look too bad, though ...she should be able to get home before it began.

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind then an angry peal of lightning struck in the distance, followed by a ground shaking clack of thunder. And then as if summoned the rain began, first a single drop spotting on her skirt, then one hitting right in the center of her head, then one on her elbow, before it was falling all around in sheets just as she managed to throw up her free arm to form a shield of sorts to keep herself relatively dry.

She was the only person on foot in sight, most people having been aware enough too read the portending ill-weather in the skies and know not to not venture out unless they had a roofed carriage to convey them. It was a good thirty minutes by foot to her home and there was no way she would be able to keep her arm raised in such an uncomfortable position for that long.

She scolded herself for being so thoughtless as to have not taken note of the atmospheric conditions earlier – really, she was a waterbender, she should be able to tell better than anyone when it would rain.

It was just then as she was preparing to drop her bending stance and let the rain fall as it would that a carriage drawn by two handsome komodo-dragons slowed down to a stop next to her and an equally handsome head that was simultaneously far too familiar and not nearly familiar enough peaked shyly out of the cab window.

"Excuse me," none other than Captain Zuko asked meekly, "But could I offer you a ride?"

Here he was, so fortuitously, the man she'd so desperately wanted to avoid and so desperately wanted to see, right at her very moment of need. Katara laughed, and then laughed some more when his face turned pink.

"Yes," she said. "You could, and I think I would be obliged to accept."

Zuko smiled, and before his driver could move to do it himself the prince was stepping out into the rain and holding the door open for young woman, apparently not caring or maybe not even realizing that he was getting soaked.

She climbed into the cab, glad to be able to put her arm down, and gave the driver her address as Zuko seated himself next to her and closed the door.

"Thank you," she said simply once they were on their way. "I appreciate this."

"I couldn't let you walk home in the rain." He wasn't looking at her, but at his hands where they rested one on each leg.

The rain beat down on the canvas roof and another clap of thunder sounded in the distance.

"I was hoping -"

"Oh!" Katara interrupted. "How silly of me, here, let me..." She motioned to his rather damp state and, when he gave his nod of consent, easily bent the water from his clothes and hair and sent it out the window.

He ran a hand over his head, smoothing down his now dry hair. "Thank you."

The waterbender smiled. "It's nothing." She coughed a little. "Um, you were saying?"

He looked up at her, startled. "I was saying..." He swallowed. "I was saying that, I hoped I would see you again."

Hoped to see her?

A thousand thoughts flew through her mind, but the one she finally settled on was simply, "Oh."

Another long silence passed in which neither said anything, filled by the rain and the scrabble of komodo-rhino feet on the pavement.

"I thought he was trying to seduce my sister," he said suddenly.

Katara shook her head. "He was trying... who?"

"The boy, or, the man... the young gentleman from the shop, who I was having... words with," he explained. "The day we first met... sort of. I thought he was trying to seduce my younger sister, Azula."

Involuntarily, a nervous 'ha' escaped Katara's throat.

"You thought... Haru? Really? I've known him for several years, and I can assure you he is the last person to ever –"

"I know." Zuko sighed. "I know that now. It turns out it was actually... You must understand, I hadn't seen my sister in years, and I guess I'd forgotten how... well, in short, it seems it was _she _who was trying to seduce _him._"

Katara furrowed her brow. "I didn't know you had a sister... what's she like?"

He thought for a moment.

"Persuasive."

She laughed, and he laughed, too.

When they reached her house she invited him in for tea.

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_**Soothe**_

Katara felt very torn. She felt in tatters, really. She never should have invited him for tea. She never should have let him give her a ride home. She never should have flirted with him at the dance (because yes, it was flirting, she couldn't pretend that it wasn't). She never should have laid eyes on him at all, but it was too late for that. It had become very clear that Zuko was in love with her, and she couldn't allow herself to be in love wit h him.

And she _wasn't. _

Her father had brought Aang home when she was just ten, a year after her mother died, a tiny bald headed little boy of eight with gray eyes too big for his face and a grin that could break through all but the hardest of hearts. Sokka was off to his first year of school leaving her on her own, so it was with great relief that she adopted Aang as another much less rude and much more agreeable brother. And when it dawned on her that they were expected to get married, she never questioned it. Why would she? He was her best friend. It was only recently that she began to think that maybe she might want something else.

And she did want something else.

Katara steeled herself, ready to confront him when he came downstairs. There was the sound of his steps – only he could move so lightly. She took one breath, two...

The moment he appeared she said it.

"Aang we need to talk."

He blinked his wide gray eyes. "Um... Okay?"

Katara silently stepped into the sitting room and he followed, sitting down next to her on the sofa.

"This is difficult for me to say..." she began, wringing her hands, her eyes telling of how much she was warring with herself.

Aang took one of her hands in his. "You can tell me anything, you know that." He smiled his infectious smile, and Katara's free hand flew to cover her eyes as she willed them to stay dry.

"That's what makes this so hard..." she said, unable to keep her voice even.

Aang's smile fell. She never cried, at least never in front of anyone.

"Katara..." His voice was soft when he spoke, soft and careful. "Please tell me."

She took a deep breath and shut her eyes tight.

"Aang, I can't marry you."

Though the silence that followed lasted for only moments, there seemed to be enough of it to span a hundred years. Katara couldn't make herself look at Aang until after he finally spoke. What he said didn't surprise her, but the way he said it. It was with complete and utter lightness, like a moth fluttering confusedly after escaping from behind a blind.

He said, "Oh. Well, okay."

She looked up at him, finally. "You're okay with it?"

He just shrugged. "Well... yeah. Honestly, I didn't know that you thought I expected you to."

Katara blinked, several times and quickly. She looked like she had just discovered that what she had always thought was blue was actually yellow.

"I thought... isn't that' what everyone expected."

Aang laughed – he actually _laughed,_ though he did look a little guilty for it once he was able to rein it in.

"I know we used to joke when we were kids that we would get married, but I didn't think you thought anyone was actually holding either of us to it."

Slowly, the sense of disorientation after having what she thought was a definitive fact suddenly pulled out from under her began to fade to be replaced by immense relief.

"I... I guess I did." Now she laughed, first just a little 'ha', followed by another, until she was overtaken my guffaws and giggles for a good minute.

Aang joined her, and when they had both calmed down he spoke.

"Actually, there's someone I kind of have my eye on." He blushed a little at the admission. "I was hoping I could introduce you, see what you think. Your opinion means a lot to me."

Katara beamed and nodded. She then blushed a little herself and added,

"There might be someone I'd like you to meet as well."

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_**Spark**_

First, he came visiting one morning when both Aang and her father were home, the latter of whom he only met very briefly, to his relief.

A week later she and her family were invited to dine at his family's summer house. There she met his mother, who was lovely, and his sister Azula, who was... intimidating. Thankfully she didn't seem to have anything against Katara, or against her brother courting her. If anything she was a little disconcertingly supportive, always ready to pounce on any excuse to put them in close quarters and even saying that she always wished she had a sister just like her, something that would have been sweet coming from most anyone else but seemed almost like a threat coming from that preternaturally poised young woman.

A couple of weeks later his family was invited to their home for dinner, an ordeal made even more nerve wracking when Sokka unexpectedly showed up 'just for a visit' the morning of, waving a boomerang around menacingly (when asked Aang said he might have mentioned the upcoming dinner in his last letter...)

Suki reassured her that Sokka simply wanted to meet the man courting his sister and that he was mostly joking about the boomerang. Unexpected party additions aside, along with inappropriately threatening comments from one said unexpected party addition, the dinner went well. Blessedly it was just Zuko and his mother, his sister having unspecified prior engagements.

The nect week the season was almost over and Sokka and Suki were already back on their way to Kyoshi in anticipation of her students' return. However before they left her sister-in-law made sure to get Katara alone and ask her how it happened, how they had come to a point where it was serious enough that the prince's entire family was dining with them.

Katara told her about the day in the rain, and how they had spent hours afterwords talking about everything, from books to Ember Island (neither were fond of the society) to their families, about things that she would usually never talk to anyone about, and that she suspected he rarely spoke of either.. She had told him about her mother's death and he had confided in her about the difficult relationship he had with his father and being sent away at thirteen. They talked far later into the evening then was strictly appropriate, so caught they were in each other.

After ooh-ing and did he really-ing through the entire story, Suki smirked and shook her head in a knowing way. "He's going to ask you to marry him, soon. I wouldn't be surprised if he did it tomorrow."

"No, no he isn't... " Katara flushed. "I mean, you can't know that, we have no way of knowing if... do you really thing he will?"

"I know he will. He's obviously in love with you, the entire island knows it."

After a moment of failing to pull off a scandalized glare, Katara raised a hand to her face to hid her grin. "He is pretty obvious, isn't he?"

.

Suki was wrong – he didn't propose the next day, but the day after.

Katara said yes, even when in his nervousness the flaming heart trick he had obviously put a lot of practice into almost caught the curtains on fire. Aang whooped in celebration when he heard before immediately whirling off to post a letter Sokka and Suki with the news. And Hakoda gave his approval, though he did say that when he said that soon it would be Katara's turn to get married he hadn't meant quite _this _soon.

The couple was very happy, so happy that not even the news that Azula had eloped with a shop boy could ruin Zuko's good mood.

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End file.
